Transparent conducting coatings are of commercial use in display technologies, optics, electromagnetic shielding and many other applications. Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is the most widely used coating, however it is inflexible and requires high processing temperatures to fabricate.
Efficient thin film devices, including organic photovoltaic and organic electroluminescent devices have been the subject of much advancement. In particular, organic light emitting materials have attracted increasing interest in the past two decades. Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) may be either small molecule OLED or polymer OLED. Soluble light emitting polymers are appealing for manufacture of large area, low cost light emitting devices. In recent years, screen and inkjet printing have been successfully applied to this area, promising lower cost for area lighting, patterning and display applications.
While the emissive electroluminescent layer is polymeric, varying amounts of OLEDs can be deposited in arrays on a screen using simple “printing” methods to create a graphical color display, for use as television screens, computer displays, advertising and information board applications, and the like. OLED may also be used in lighting devices. Prior to standardization, OLED technology was also referred to as organic electro-luminescence.